In the early ’90s, the future of Nick Lowe’s career was quite uncertain. After 1990’s Party of One, his only album for Reprise, he was without a record contract. Then, miraculously, the royalties from Curtis Stigers’ cover of his Brinsley Schwarz classic “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) “Peace, Love, and Understanding,” which was included on the multi-million selling soundtrack to The Bodyguard (featuring Whitney Houston’s ubiquitous take on Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”), enabled him to make records on his own terms and his own schedule, and he has followed that template since.

Yep Roc’s fantastic treatment and reissuing of Nick Lowe’s incredible back catalog continues with this, a beautiful pink vinyl repressing of their 2011 reissue of his second “solo” album, Labour of Lust, famously highlighted by Top 20 U.K. and U.S. hit single and opening track “Cruel to Be Kind.” That big hit isn’t the only highlight here.

Though Modern Nature’s Jack Cooper certainly has a musical history that pre-dates the release of his latest project’s Nature EP in 2019, a compelling arc of history and evolution can be traced over the past three years of his latest iteration’s existence. Originally billed as a partnership between Cooper and BEAK>’s Will Young, half of the musicians that appeared on Modern Nature’s debut, Young and Woods’ Aaron Neveu, are no longer on board, or at least not for the outfit’s high water mark to date, Island of Noise.

If you have followed Thrice’s burgeoning second act, you’ll know that the four-piece are in a time of great thriving, and this, their newest album, makes it clear that they have no intention of slowing down.

With the first volume of Joni Mitchell’s Archives series offering material that leads up to her 1968 debut album, Archives Vol. 2 picks up the torch from there and runs up to some late ’70/early ’71 sessions for her classic album Blue. Aside from the rewards to be found in hearing her albums released during these years, the five CDs (also in a 10-LP limited edition) in this set offer a unique embarrassment of riches, with nearly six hours of unreleased home, studio, and live recordings.

The first time I heard “Right On Time,” the opening cut from Birdtalker’s new self-titled record, I was stopped in my tracks. Firstly, it’s a great song with all the elements to be a hit. The chorus asks, “Did anybody ever tell you you were right on time?” and it certainly feels as if this band has come along at the perfect moment.

Twenty-one-year-old U.K. artist Holly Humberstone follows up her critically acclaimed debut EP Falling Asleep at the Wheel with another six-track master class in expressive, emotive relatable pop. The Walls Are Way Too Thin EP provides proof positive that Humberstone is perhaps the brightest Gen Z singer/songwriter to emerge from the U.K. in quite some time. And it’s that “relatability” that has helped Humberstone build a huge following during lockdown.

Musical multi-hyphenate Arca understands more than any artist in the public eye that flux is a natural part of the human condition. It’s illuminated in her music, performance, visuals, and whatever medium she uses to illustrate facets of her self-expression. The world Arca has created through her art defies any sort of binary, be it of gender, genre, or form itself. In-between states are explored endlessly, and liberation is found in entropy and chaos.

Don’t meddle with a masterpiece they say. But what happens when someone peddles your masterpiece? When someone you have zero respect for buys and sells your work and could continue to profit from it for many years to come? This is essentially what happened to Taylor Swift when the masters to her early albums released on Big Machine were sold without her having any say in the matter.